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Topic: RIP VHS (Read 1315 times)

This month will see the last videocassette recorder (VCR) produced in Japan, according to reports. Once no home was complete without a library of chunky black cassettes and a recording device with a slot you had to keep telling the kids not to insert their toast into.

Home video changed everything. Now you could record TV programmes and watch them again, rather than having to commit them to memory and then play them back in your head. Plus you could rent movies from the video shop and enjoy them at home, instead of having to sit in a cinema alongside other humans who might not appreciate Tom Selleck or Molly Ringwald as much as you did.

But there were downsides you had to balance against being able to fast-forward through the adverts for the first time. The tapes would sometimes chew up and the picture quality never quite did justice to that David Lean epic you were watching. The recorders were a nightmare to programme (unless you were under the age of 20, in which case you were generally designated Official Household VCR-Operator) and all too often you would return home to find someone had recorded over that film you were really looking forward to watching with an episode of Knots Landing or Airwolf.

I finally binned my VCR a few months ago as it would not allow a tape to be inserted and play. Had a guy look at it, said the part to fix was probably not available anymore. Still have all the tapes collected over the years. Oh well.

Was up with Itcity, the whole of the top floor is now closed. Are desktops also becoming a thing of the past and people are opting for tablets. After all, the rest of our devices have gotten smaller there is a joke there somewhere